Elizabeth Derby

Actor, director and UVA Drama professor Kate Burke is on a mission to change American theater. “I’m very aware of how the American tradition has been influenced by Method acting,” Burke said in a recent interview. “There are some good things about it, but in distorted form it focuses on emotions and neuroses of both […]

“I feel like an old soul in general. If I’m shopping, I’d rather buy something old and upcycle it or do something that appreciates the value of what it used to be,” said Charlottesville- based alternative photographer Cary Oliva. “Things were just more beautiful back in the day.” The intrigue of age surfaces in the majority […]

In the sunroom of a manor home in Bucks County Pennsylvania, brother Vanya and adopted sister Sonia are sighing back and forth. The interior of the home is lovely and laden with books, the house is flanked by trees on either side, and the idyllic indoor porch offers two wicker chairs and a chaise lounge, […]

“I used to go to my mom’s office, which smelled like wool and fabric, and the copy machine, like hot ink and hot toner,” said Amanda Wagstaff. “She would give me grid paper, the kind designers would use to mark out different patterns, to draw on and play on to keep me occupied. I can’t get […]

Confession: I’ve never read a comic book. Sure, I housed volumes of Calvin & Hobbes as a child, but I always took the snooty literary view of comics. They were fine for teenage boys and any woman inexplicably drawn to gratuitous violence and triple-D boobs, but I reserved my highbrow tastes for Roald Dahl and […]

There’s something about the trees. As I walk through the exhibit, I pause to study each painting, but the trunk of a pastel pine tree stops me. Every stroke on its limbs is a living gesture, each green leaf and blue shadow a flick. The pastel landscape glows with the artist’s movements, each tree a […]

Born in Madrid, Fernando Operé calls himself “one of those weirdos”: a grad student who, upon receiving his Ph.D. from UVA in 1975, remained on campus as he moved up the ranks from assistant to associate and finally full professor of Spanish in 2002. But for Operé, who still speaks with the thick accent of […]

Imagine entering a cave-like studio, its floor spotted with rags and walls textured with years of paint flicked off a loaded brush. You’re naked when you climb onto a small, sheet-covered bed, fully prepared to hold your pose for hours. Standing just a few feet away, an artist scrutinizes your body as he prepares to […]

It’s a cold world out there for trash. The wrap on your grab-and-go sandwich, the scratched CDs and ’80s Walkman, the broken toys and worn-out furniture and colorful detritus of rich, fast-paced lives are doomed to collect in landfills, antique shops and garbage-strewn street corners—unless an artist comes along. “In 1992, my neighbor was throwing […]

Photos of secluded beaches, colorful fishing boats and turquoise waves hang on the walls of Second Street Gallery, which has been temporarily overrun with harbor themes: a white ship-shaped structure from which dozens of folded origami boats dangle and twirl, a wash of sand and seashells across the gallery floor, a navy blue wall bearing […]

Every week for the last 10 months, I’ve interviewed area artists for this column. Over coffee and phone lines I’ve been privileged to speak with writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, dancers, actors and mixed media creators. We’d talk for an hour, I’d write for three more, and in the process I’ve found a few themes that […]

“One of my paintings is on the cover of American Psychologist this month, and it shows a man looking out over a field and into the mountains. My feeling was he is in harmony with nature, and if you can just be with him, you can feel that same peace and bliss from the painting,” […]

I was 10 years old when I saw Les Misérables on Broadway, and my dislike of the show was immediate and intense. I wasn’t prepared for my total immersion into a world where destitute mothers became prostitutes, innocent men served on chain gangs and girls my age toiled barefoot in the streets. Oh, and then […]

When you think of storytelling, you might imagine your animated girlfriend gesticulating over Sunday brunch or a kindly grandfather telling the kids to gather ’round. But for Siân Richards and Kara McLane Burke, stories begin in the body. “You just kind of start somewhere and give yourself rules, a series of assignments, even if you […]

When you view a photography exhibit that focuses exclusively on doors, you can’t help but feel a tinge of desperation to know what on earth is behind them. Artist Daphne Maxwell Reid makes no such offers in her current show at The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. “Everybody starts with the same curiosity. Every […]

Less than a week before opening night, Miller Murray Susen, the director and author of Four County Players’ holiday adaptation of Little Women, has one priority: to keep things calm. “I’ve never directed a full-length play and been in charge of adding in all the tech stuff,” said Susen. “I seriously don’t have a great […]

Earlier this year, then-15-year-old snowboarder and Charlottesville native Ward Saunders traveled to Copper Mountain, Colorado, to compete in the U.S.A. Snowboard Association’s national championships. Described by the event website as “the largest snowboard and free skiing event on earth,” the national championships invite top regional winter sport athletes from around the country to compete by […]

For many artists the act of creation is inspired not by the need for intellectual exercise or profound exploration as much as the need to scratch an itch that simply won’t quit. Cate West Zahl, whose work appears alongside her father’s in the “Father/Daughter Art Show” presented by New City Arts, explained self-expression this way: […]

If you have a fireplace or a wood stove in your home, odds are good that you also have a chimney. And if you have a chimney, it needs to be cleaned—every 30 to 50 fires, according to Wendell Worley of Mirkwood Chimney Sweep. In addition to telling us why chimney cleaning is crucial, Worley […]

To celebrate the first birthday of her online literary journal Full Grown People on October 4, editor Jennifer Niesslein published a book. “Full Grown People: The Greatest Hits, Volume 1 gives you a good idea of our breadth,” she said. “It covers a lot, from parenting issues, when you’re looking at maybe your kids leaving […]

Local playwright, actor, UVA drama lecturer, and wellness coach Denise Stewart is on a sugar fast. “I’m on day four because I thought it would be interesting and fun and maybe something to blog about. It’s already hard,” she said. But not as hard as the 30-day raw food fast she did earlier this year. […]

“I was walking down the street in Asheville a few years ago, and I saw a line forming at the center where I’d occasionally attended meditation,” said Leena Rose Miller. “I thought, ‘What’s this?’ and got into it, not knowing what to expect. I can honestly only tell you that when I stood in front […]

Curator Tosha Grantham’s biggest single show to date took over 10 years to develop. Featuring 112 objects by 18 artists occupying 4,500 square feet, “Darkroom” was a collection of photography and new media from South Africa’s period of apartheid. But it wasn’t size and scope that gave Grantham satisfaction. “I was talking to someone outside […]

Like most brides to be, Wendy Blair Winkler spent more than a year planning her wedding. Unlike most wedding parties, her guests spent months building the event themselves on a farm in Free Union. Winkler modeled her wedding on experiences at Burning Man, an annual art festival held on the arid salt flats of transient […]

Visual artist Philip de Jong won’t content himself with creating beautiful work. In fact, he avoids contentment altogether. “At some point as a trained photographer your job is to make anything look good,” he said. “If people describe my work as pretty, I feel insulted on some level because all it means is that I […]

Fanny Smedile is not a professional dancer. But at last year’s Cville Sabroso, she put on a colorful dancing dress and found herself transformed. “When I wore the costume, I felt my folklore,” she said. “When I listened to the music, it took me back to my country. In that moment, I felt it in […]

Allison Mitchell helps people sort through and systematize the keeping of their stuff. But really, she says, they’re redefining self-love. “The irony for my clients is that they fear losing something, so they keep everything, then they lose the something they really wanted to keep,” said Mitchell, a Charlottesville-based organizing consultant for Richmond firm Abundance […]